Trying to jump foot first into Medal of Honor: Airborne

Medal of Honor: Airborne has some interesting differences from the rest of the …

With all the Halo action going on right now, I've been relishing the chance to play through a shooter that has nothing to do with the Chief: the latest incarnation of the Medal of Honor series, Airborne. While I'll save my full thoughts for the mini-review coming later this week, I wanted to wax about the game's most significant departure from the WWII FPS norm: parachuting.

Airborne focuses on the 82nd Airborne division, and the game's approach to missions is rather unique. Instead of having linear levels, Airborne's missions are completely designed as arenas. At the beginning of each mission—and after each death—you'll need to parachute in and move to your objectives from wherever you land. This is neat, in the sense that you pick where you land and work from there.

However, the problem that arises is the completely unresponsive parachute controls. Airborne is not the first title in the Medal of Honor franchise to use this mechanic: the Wii title Vanguard did as well. Vanguard's parachuting mechanics were fun (if underutilized) and provided excellent control—they stood out from the rest of the rather rough package. In contrast, the same aspect of Airborne falters significantly. It's hard to land exactly where you want to—in an unrealistic way, mind you—and that trumps the added dimension of having to properly land on your feet by flaring or greasing the drop. The game touts your ability to land anywhere on the map, but then denies you that capability.

This lack of control is significant in that parachuting is one of the core constituents of the game. There are times in the harder levels where you'll jump again and again and again, and not being able to land even close to where you're aiming for. Add in snipers trying to shoot you down, and you have a recipe for frustration. Perhaps mapping the control nuances of the Wii remote to the Xbox 360 controller just didn't work out.